rs: the firm, full tones
of a deep bass voice within, singing loud and strong.

Though he could not see the singer, something in the song thrilled
James through and through. Forgetting his weariness he knew that he
was near his journey's end at last. As he listened, he noticed a
handful of people, listening also, under the barred window.

Loud jeers arose: 'Play up, Fiddler!' 'Sing on, Quaker!' or even, 'Ply
him with more ale, Gaoler: the prisoner is the better musician!'

At these cries the fat man's countenance grew ever more enraged. He
looked savage and huge, 'like a bear-ward,' a man more accustomed to
deal with bears than with human beings. Finally, in his wrath, he
turned the now empty tankard upon the crowd and bespattered them with
the last drops of the ale, and then called lustily for more, with
which he plied the fiddler anew. So the contest continued, but at
last, the ale perhaps taking effect, the fiddler's head dropped, his
bow swept the strings more wearily, while the strong notes inside the
dungeon grew ever more firm and loud. The gaoler seeing, or rather
hearing, himself worsted, caught the bow from the fiddler's hand and
cracked it over his skull. The fiddler, seizing this chance to escape,
leapt to his feet and dashed across the courtyard, followed by the
gaoler and the populace in full chase. Even the sombre Baptist deacon
gathered up the skirts of his long coat and bestirred his lean legs.
The singing ceased. A face appeared at the window: only for an
instant: but one glance was enough for James.

Timidly he approached the window, but he had only taken two steps
towards it when he found himself firmly elbowed off the pavement and
pushed into the gutter. Someone else also had been watching for the
crowd to disperse, in order to have a chance of speaking with the
prisoner. The new-comer was a portly lady in a satin gown, a much
grander person than James had expected to find in the near
neighbourhood of a dungeon. She carried a large, covered basket, and,
as soon as the way was clear, she set it down on the pavement and
began to take out the contents carefully: bread and salt, beef and
elecampane ale. Without looking up from her work she called to the
unseen figure at the window above her head: 'So thou hast stopped
their vain sounds at length with thy singing?'

'Aye,' answered the deep voice from within. 'Thou mayest safely
approach the window now, for the gaoler hath departed. After he had
be